tiger barb: pregnant or dropsy?

Hello,
I have been watching my tiger barb lately and can not figure out if he/she is about to explode, lay eggs, or if it has a bad disease. After further research I believe she is either really plump with eggs or has really bad dropsy?.
Please see the attached pictures for more info.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It definitely looks like dropsy. Once it gets to the point where you can actually notice it, it's usually too late, however I have heard of a couple success stories.

Right now, water changes would be the best thing you could do. 40 ppmnitrates seems a bit high anyways, and water changes would help bring that down.

He prabably developed this because of overstocking and poor stocking. I think the best thing would be to rehome a couple of your fish (like the pleco, cories, cherry barbs, and the other two tigers, as they all get too big for a 15 gallon; we could help you with your stocking from there).

You could try giving it a salt dip, it might help relieve some pressure and could possibly cure him... but it won't be a permanent fix with how overstocked your tank is... you need to get a bigger tank or get rid of some fish.

Also as stated above, if the salt dip doesn't work and it doesn't help the bloating, euthanasia would be my next step.

I just wanted to post an update. I did the partial water change and I would say apx. 1-2 hours later the fish had passed on its own. I continued watching her throughout the rest of the day and it seemed as though all of the symptoms were getting worse at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, I think she was just too far gone to be saved. Thanks for all the help. As for restocking, I'm thinking that a 30 gallon should do the trick.
~Dena

I would only go with one big school of corys rather than 2 smaller ones, but that's my preference. That's assuming the 30 is 36 inches long. If the tank is only 30 inches I really think it would be best to just have one species. Too, if it's a 36 inch tank then it could support 3 small schools of fish (not counting corys), but I feel that 2 larger schools will look better. And, if the tank is 30 inches, then just 2 schools, in addition to the corys.

Tiger barbs and red minors (serpae tetras) are not good beginner fish. They can be quite problematic, even when kept in a larger group. I think it would be best to ditch them both, up the cherry barb school and get a a school of black neons.

Ok. I have now purchased a 36 gallon bow front tank (30"L x 15.5"W) and I am trying to figure out how to fix my stocking situation. I want to keep both tanks running. I figured that I would transfer some into the new tank and then go from there.

Which fish should I transfer? I was looking to make an active and colorful tank out of what I have and maybe with some new friends. I was thinking that the platys would most likely be the center piece. Also, I think that I'm going to have to separate the corys and the pleco; the pleco keeps antagonizing them. I don't know if they are just overcrowded or if they shouldn't be together.

I think number-wise, if you move everything but the platies to the 36, and get schools of 6 for everything but the pleco, the tank should be stocked. I'm not sure how it would be compatibility-wise, but I would think it would work. Just make sure the tiger barbs aren't doing too much fin-nipping.

I would also consider dropping a school of cories, as that may be too many fish on the bottom of the tank.

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